Meetings with Nature

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 We often feel more at ease or settled amongst trees, listening to birds, being with animals, feeling the rain or sun on our face.  There is considerable research showing that contact with nature impacts positively on our physiology, and often helps reduce stress. 

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• A team from Edinburgh University attached EEG sensors onto research participants and measured changes in their brain activity as they walked in busy urban settings and green spaces.  They found that participants’ neural activity varied depending on the setting.  Participants were more relaxed in greener environments.

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• Research teams in Japan exploring the effect of phytoncides (chemicals given off by trees) on the human body, have discovered that these chemicals increase the number of Natural Killer cells in our bodies:  trees calm us and boost our immune systems.

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• Scientists are also discovering that plants can communicate with each other via vast below-ground mycorrhizal networks (professor of Forest Ecology at British Columbia, Suzanne Simard  - Ted Talk)

 

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• Plant neurobiologists in Murcia, Spain are finding that plants can learn by association – they can choose.  They are exploring more and more about plant cognition and sentience  (Paco Calvo)

 

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• Short video showing the amazing impacts of introducing wolves to Yellowstone Park in the US, exemplifying the interconnected nature of ecology.

 

Books

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• Peter Wohlleben                      The Hidden Life of Trees (2017)                

                                                     

• David Abram                           The Spell of the Sensuous  (2017)

                                                       Becoming Animal   (2010)

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• Joanna Macy &                       Active Hope.  How to face the mess we’re in without                                             

      Chris Johnstone                       going crazy.  (2012)               

 

• Ian Siddons Heginworth          Environmental Arts therapy and the Tree of  Life. (2008)

 

• Mary-Jane Rust                       Towards an Ecopsychotherapy.  (2020)

 

• Nick Totton                              Wild Therapy.  Undomesticating inner and  outer                                                                          worlds.

 

• Rhonda Bandrick &                 The Natural Self.  A Handbook and Journal.  (2017) 

 

      Micheal Connors

 

• Bill Plotkin                               Soulcraft.  Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and                                                                   Psyche.  (2003)

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